Hi everyone, I hope you’ve had a tolerable week and that your December is merry, bright, and free from infectious disease.
How are you doing?
I’m doing generally fine, thanks for asking! Unfortunately the same cannot be said for a close family member, who just had surgery on two severed quadriceps tendons (one in each leg). They’ve been in the hospital since Monday, had surgery yesterday (which went well) and will spend several weeks in a rehab facility followed by a good half a year healing in what sounds like Forrest Gump-like leg braces.
How are you doing? Have any nice, covid-safe plans for the holidays?
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Here’s some of my recent work
December is typically a relatively slow time for me but I’ve got a number of stories I’m working on, and a few being published in the near future. The only thing I’ve had go live in the past week though is this story for The Takeout.
Burning Questions: What’s the deal with Certified Angus Beef? - If you buy beef, you’ve seen the “Certified Angus Beef” label slapped onto a piece of meat. It was pretty recently though that I actually learned what it meant, and that the label isn’t just marketing but actually reflects that the meat has met certain objective criteria set down by the USDA.
You’re going to want to see this
Nigella Lawson said “microwave” sorta funny and everybody lost their minds - I guess people must be pretty bored because Nigella Lawson pronouncing microwave as “mee-kro-wah-vey” made the internet lose its mind for a hot second. Listen yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.
Pete Wells showed his ass in a comment about cast iron pans - NY Times dining critic Pete Wells ignited a furor (and made an ass of himself) when he tweeted the following on Wednesday:
The problem with this is that Pete Wells—a man with far too much influence doing what is arguably the least important job in the food world—doesn’t seem to grasp that maybe the reason people love cast iron pans so much, and like to talk about them, is because they’re: A) inexpensive; B) will last for literally a hundred years if you treat them correctly; and C) because they last forever are often passed down from family member to family member as a treasured heirloom.
There’s also the fact that antique cast iron pans are quite simply better made than the vast majority of the pans produced in recent years. If you’d like to know more about this check out what I wrote on the subject for my short-lived column at the Michelin Guide.
But really Pete Wells, just fucking let people enjoy what they like. Who exactly is being hurt here? A guy with a cushy pandemic-immune gig which can be summed up as “I have an expense account” should understand that talking shit about a piece of equipment favored by poor people is, just maybe, going to come across as a bit entitled.
A large lot of vintage serving ware shaped like lettuce sold for $60k at auction (VICE) - You’ve probably run across at least one example of Dodie Thayer “lettuce ware,” and thought “well, isn’t that hideous.” Turns out it’s actually quite valuable (to the right person) and a large lot of it sold at Sotheby’s for a cool 60 thousand dollars. VICE has the story, which includes a sort of fun examination of other lettuce-inspired products.
Stuff I’m into right now
I am completely smitten with Andrea Nguyen’s work (which you might already know given that she provided a recipe for an earlier newsletter post) and have asked for both her book on tofu and a tofu making kit for Christmas.
I’m loving the newly released book Chaat, which is focused on the eponymous category of Indian street foods. The book is beautifully photographed, packed with recipes from multiple regions of India, and is generally just fantastic. I’m looking forward to really digging into it during the coming year.
Earlier this year on Twitter I documented the making of a puntarelle salad, a classic roman dish which involves taking a rather crazy looking vegetable called a puntarelle, slicing it into thin ribbons, shocking it in ice water, and then dressing it with olive oil and anchovy.
It’s a great dish, but a pain in the ass to make as it requires a lot of fine knife work if you don’t own a puntarelle slicer, which is basically just a wooden frame covered in a grid of fine, taught wire. You take the puntarelle, forced it through the slicer, and all the work is done for you. So, when I discovered that the food purveyor Natoora is now selling not just the vegetable but the slicer itself, I was quite excited. The problem, of course, is that puntarelle isn’t easy to come by, and is quite expensive (Natoora sells it for around $15 a pound). Do I really need the slicer? No. Do I want one? Absolutely. How does my wife feel about adding this to our cluttered apartment? Take a wild guess. I won’t be buying one.
What I’ve been cooking lately
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